Hanging On
by amichele
Summary: The first mission without super-speed did not go well, to say the least. The fire left two certain teenage boys with more problems than soot on their faces. They find themselves hanging onto their lives by thin, thin, threads, and the middle Davenport child finally begins to understand that actions have consequences. *Alternate ending of the episode "Three Minus Bree"*
1. Prologue

**Okay, I know that this is a very sudden story, considering the episode just came out. I got the idea while I was watching the new episode, Three Minus Bree, and I know a lot of you probably did too, so I wanted to get this out there. Without further ado, the story begins now. By the way, when I say the names, it will mean I'm using third person limited through the person whose name I put at the beginning o the section. Like the Heroes of Olympus series, if anyone has read that. This is just a prologue, so it will be shorter than the rest of the chapters. **

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**_CHASE_**

Fire. It's a dangerous thing, Chase always knew that. From the day Adam set the lab on fire when they were still small children, Chase had hated fire. It was his biggest fear.

_It had been a genuine accident. Adam found a lighter in one of Donald's desks, and got too close to the chair set up in the corner of the room, usually used for story-time. The three children had been home alone, since Donald was at a technology conference. By the time Donald got home, his lab was in flames. It had a lot more cloth in it during the first few years of Donald rescuing them from his brother, Douglas. Donald had managed to get Adam and Bree into the elevator before any serious injuries had occurred. Chase, on the other hand, hadn't been so fortunate. He had gotten a nasty burn on his stomach before he could get into the elevator, and to the present day, anyone can still see scar tissue when he lifts up his shirt, which he tends to not do unless absolutely necessary._

"CHASE!" Donald yelled, searching around the building, "ADAM!" upon receiving no answer from either of the two teenage boys, he continued his search in the burning building. All of the other people had been rescued.

All except Chase and Adam. The two boys were on opposite sides of the building, each trapped under a burning piece of the ceiling, or the fallen walls. It was hard to tell what was what. The building was too demolished at this point, and Chase could feel the life draining out of him as he was surrounded by the flames, no longer having the energy to yell for help.

He blamed Bree. He tried not to, but as hard as he tried, the thought would not leave his mind. It was in there forever, it seemed like. Well, his forever may not last as long as he would have liked it to. He saw black spots, and after a board fell on the right side of his body, specifically the shoulder of his right arm, he only saw black. He had no time for pain. He felt his head grow heavy, and seconds after that, he felt nothing.

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**_DONALD_**

The tech mogul kept calling out for his sons, screaming their names until his voice was hoarse and his throat was raw. He would not give up on his children, though. Not in this time of need, not when he knew what his youngest son's biggest fear was. He was not about to let this happen to his children. If he had anticipated this, he would have called off the mission and left the other people. That sounded horrible, and he knew it, and yet he couldn't help but think it. Firefighters might have been able to save the other people. He was blaming himself. His mind kept on telling him that if only he had realized the danger of going on a mission without super-speed, none of this would have happened. He pushed those thoughts as far back as he could, not stopping the search for his sons.

After what seemed like an eternity of searching the flaming and crumbling building, he saw an arm. An arm that did not look attached to a body. This very thought made Donald shudder in horror and shock. If he trusted his eyes, and believed that this was a severed arm, it meant that one of his sons no longer had both arms. There was only one way to find out, and that was to face Donald's own biggest fear, the fear of one of his bionic children being hurt. Donald knew he must remove the board covering the rest of the body that the arm was lying next to. He dreaded seeing what was underneath, and he had a very good reason to.

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**_ADAM_**

Adam had stayed awake for as long as he could, which was a pretty long time. He fought for every second of consciousness, and could feel the rising temperature of the area surrounding him. His arms were wrapped around his torso, and his legs were curled up to his neck. Adam was curled up in a ball, fighting to stay alive and get back to his family.

He had moments that he wasn't proud of, the moments that made his siblings laugh at his stupidity, but he knew this was no time to think of anything else but surviving. He would not let his mind wander, he would keep his thoughts saying one thing, every inch of his brain simultaneously chanting this one thing- Survive.

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**It was short, and it was dramatic. I'll definitely update this either tomorrow or the day after. The minute the topic of the boys being hurt in the fire was brought up, I knew I had to write this. I hope everyone enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it. If you did enjoy this, please leave a review, favorite or follow! I would appreciate it! Thank you in advance to everyone who does, I'll see you all next update! Goodbye!**


	2. Chapter One

**I'm back, and I brought the official first chapter with me! Thank you guys so much for all the favorites, follows, and reviews. I really appreciate it!**

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**_BREE_**

The middle child paced back and forth in her "father's" lab. The mission should have been finished by now. It was past dinnertime, and no mission had ever taken this amount of time. As she walked back and forth in a straight line, she couldn't help but feel guilty. Her bionics would have come in handy on this mission, and she knew it by now.

For an hour or two longer, Bree was stuck in the lab with only her thoughts. And those thoughts did nothing to help her. Those thoughts reminded her that her brothers might be dead because she had to go and break her chip.

"Bree! Help me carry them!" Donald's voice called out from the hallway entrance to the lab, not the elevator entrance. Bree ran- like a normal human being- to the source of Donald's voice. Her eyes widened in horror at what she saw. Both of her brothers were unconscious- well, she hoped they were just unconscious- and bleeding from many places. The worst part about it was Chase's right arm, or what should be Chase's right arm. Nothing was there. Chase's shoulder was where his 'arm' now stopped. Nothing else was there. Just a bloody stump of a shoulder.

"I stopped most of the bleeding once I got him into my helicopter," Donald said quietly, "But his arm was already gone, and there was no way it could be fixed. Stitching it back on would just make him attached to a rotting piece of useless flesh." Instead of responding to her father figure, Bree had said nothing, and just focused her gaze on Adam. Her older brother had cuts on the sides of his arms, and his legs were scraped up so bad that they no longer resembled legs. The mission suits that both boys had been wearing were torn and stained with blood. Soot was covering both of her brothers' faces.

"They don't even look like my brothers anymore," Bree said quietly. Donald sent her brief 'this-is-your-fault' look.

"They didn't have you to help them out. They got everyone out, but they went back to make sure, and then they got trapped," Donald says, "It is your fault." As these words left his mouth, Bree looked at him with an unreadable face. She had never experienced so many emotions before at the same time, not even when her true father's identity was revealed, or when she discovered that Leo had been right about Marcus.

"I'm a little disappointed to hear you say that so openly, but you are right," Bree said, frowning a little bit. After she took another look at her brothers, her look became one of pure heartbreak.

"Help me get them into their capsules," Donald ordered, picking up Chase's legs. Bree bit her lip and tentatively picked up Chase's left arm with one hand and supported his back with the other hand. She helped Donald carry Chase to his capsule, being very careful when she leaned him against the back wall and stepped out of the capsule to give him more room. Their capsules were really designed to only hold one person at a time. It could get very cramped if more than one person was in it at the same time.

"Shut the door and help me get Adam," Donald said tersely, walking back to the hallway to get Adam. Bree wiped some of the soot off of Chase's face before taking a step back from him.

Bree shut the door to Chase's capsule and then walked back to where Adam was. Donald was supporting Adam's arms, which were scraped up, but not nearly as scraped up as his legs. Bree gently grabbed Adam's legs, using one hand for each leg. She winced as she felt the blood against her palm; blood was one of her least favorite things. She knew perfectly well what Donald was doing- making her deal with the bloodiest part of her brothers.

"Do you think this is funny? Making me hold Chase's shoulder stump and Adam's maimed legs?" Bree snapped at Donald, her anger very visible. Seeing her brothers like this made her so guilty and so angry at herself, and so she converted that guilt and anger into sarcasm and hatred towards her father figure.

"Yes, actually. Congratulations on figuring out my plan," Donald snapped back, beginning to walk back to the main section of the lab while supporting Adam's arms and upper body. Bree gave him a sour look, but followed after him and supported Adam's legs. "Put him in his capsule," Donald ordered once they got into the main lab.

Bree gave him a glare, but attempted to carry her oldest brother to his capsule. It took a few tries, and a few drops, but she finally was able to push him into his capsule and shut the door. After she made sure the door was shut, she looked at her blood-soaked hands. She knew that she could have been there for them, and a guilty feeling from the pit of her stomach began to make itself known to her.

"I couldn't fix your bionic chip even if I wanted to," Donald said after a minute or two of silence, "And even if I could fix it, I wouldn't. You don't deserve to be a part of the team anymore. After what happened to Adam and Chase on this mission all because you wanted to be normal, I would rather have Leo be a bionic on the team. At least he would be there for his teammates," With that said, Donald turned and walked towards the elevator. Bree was trying her best to keep her tears from flowing, but it was proving to be very difficult. Everything Donald said was true. She knew that she did not deserve a spot on the team, and never would.

"Maybe I would rather have a spot on my real father's team," The teenage girl snarled at the retreating form of her uncle. Instead of seeing an objection, Bree saw him nod.

"I think that would benefit everyone. I wouldn't have an extra annoyance in the house, Douglas would have one of his children back, and you would never have to look at the damage you did to your brothers by destroying your chip. I'm not stopping you from leaving; I'll pack your bags and drive you to Daddy," Donald responded calmly, "Although I doubt he'll even want you when he finds out that you're just a normal, useless, teenage girl," The adult man stepped into the elevator and pressed the button to go up, having made his point and not wanting to say anything more to Bree.

As soon as the elevator went up, Bree started to sob, not holding anything back. Blinded by rage towards her father and guilt towards herself, she walked over to Donald's desk and began to throw things; all of the inventions Donald was most proud of. After she had wrecked everything he cared about, she moved on to Leo's desk. When everything on there was destroyed, she leaned against a wall and continued to sob her heart out.

"It's all my fault! If they die, it's on me! I could have helped them if I hadn't been so stupid," she screamed while in between sobs.

"Well, I can't argue with anything you just said, but if it's any consolation, you're finally doing something beneficial to me by breaking Donnie's inventions," A voice that Bree knew all too well rang out through the lab. It was a voice that haunted her in her dreams, yet she had just told her uncle that she wanted to work on his team.

"What do you want now?" Bree asked, still crying. She glanced up at the screen where his face usually was when he hacked into the lab's video screens, and there he was, smiling like an insane person.

"I heard what just went on with my brother. Even when I don't have video feed of myself in Donnie's lab, I can still hear what's going on. While it isn't very helpful that you no longer have bionics, I do have a spot for you on my team. Although I can give you a new chip, one that's capable of upgrades. That would actually help me out a lot," Douglas offered, still keeping his mad-man smile on.

Bree knew that Chase had turned down this offer and double-crossed Douglas, but would she actually take up on his offer?

"I don't know, Douglas. After Adam and Chase wake up, I'll come to you with a final decision," Bree decided after a moment of thinking.

"_If_ Adam and Chase wake up," Douglas corrected, chuckling, "I'll see you then, my lovely daughter. Tell the remainder of the family hello for me," He gave Bree a wave and then the screen went black again.

Bree looked at her brothers again. Chase was leaning on his bad shoulder against one of the capsule walls. Blood was dripping down the glass wall, and Bree visibly cringed at how much the wound was still bleeding. Adam was no better off; there was a thin, but growing, pool of blood at the bottom of the capsule. His feet were soaked in the dark red liquid, which made Bree cringe even more. Both boys had such bad burns that their mission suits were disintegrated in places.

Bree held her head in her hands, and instead of sleeping in her capsule, she stayed where she was on the floor. Her dream was no consolation; it was her at her brothers' funerals, receiving dirty looks from everyone in the room, even from Tasha. Douglas had been there too- after taking one look at the state of Adam and Chase in their opened coffins, he turned to Bree and told her that she was worthless and would never be accepted anywhere, especially not on his team.

Bree woke up several times that night, her face tear-stained and her eyes puffy from crying in her sleep. But every time she went to sleep again, she would have the same dream, and she would wake up the same way every hour. She remembered Chase telling her a long time ago that some people believe dreams are warnings of events yet to come. That scared her more than anything. She wanted her brothers to go back to the way they were, but yet she knew that would never happen.

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**I hope everyone enjoyed reading this chapter. I'll focus a little bit more on some of the other characters, such as Donald, in the next chapter. And who knows, maybe the brothers will wake up next chapter. If you want to see me focus on a specific character, leave the character's name in a review or PM me. Thanks a lot for reading this, if you like it, please leave a review, follow, or favorite! Thank** **you! Goodbye for now!**


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